[floydpink]

Lots of good advice and good guns mentioned, so I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I have been through lots of handguns and finally settled on a Smith and Wesson Airweight 38 special as my every day carry. I finally settled on it after my brother, who is a Sgt of a police dept up north told me about his everyday carry and he can chose anything he wants off duty.

I like the simplicity of a revolver as well as knowing it's always gonna go bang if I unfortunately need it to.

Very easy to operate, relatively safe, easy to clean, etc.

I also put the Crimson Trace laser grips on mine which might have been a waste of money, but I love them and my eyesight is going bad.

I keep mine in the front pocket of my cargo shorts all the time and usually don't even notice it's there.

In Florida's heat and my normal attire, I can't imagine carrying something like a Glock inside my waistband all day long.

The most common complaint I hear about revolvers is that they only carry 5 or 6 rounds, but if I need more than that, I feel I am in a gunfight I will probably be losing anyway.

As far as stopping power goes, I keep Speer Gold Dot 135 grain hollowpoints in it and feel very confident of them as well as my ability to make all 5 shots count.

As far as gun safes go, I feel that if I am being invaded, the chances of me getting in a safe in time to save my family wouldn't be good.

With kids, I think educating them as well as taking away the curiosity and not leaving the gun around is key, but might be wrong.